Pat Taub
Thursday morning I woke up to the news of the new Texas abortion law, which denies abortions to the 7,000,000 women of child-bearing age in Texas. I was stunned and terrified.
As I sipped my coffee, I reflected on my own abortion in the late 1970’s. I was married with two young children and had just taken a job as Director of Counseling at a small private college in upstate New York. I got pregnant on New Year’s Eve when my husband and I neglected to use a condom. The news of my pregnancy threw me into a tailspin: How could I work with a new baby and two preschool kids? How could we manage on just one income?
The picturesque college where I was employed when I had my abortion.
I paced, slept fitfully, and lost my appetite. While abortions were legal in New York State, a sense of shame was attached to them, making me hesitant to confide in close friends. A week after learning I was pregnant, and with the full support of my husband, I phoned the local hospital and made an appointment for an abortion . To this day, it remains the most wrenching decision of my life.
My abortion was scheduled for a snowy afternoon in February. I went to work that morning. At noon I feigned “feeling sick,” so I could leave in time for my abortion. I was worried that if anyone at work knew of my pending abortion, I would be looked down upon. The hospital where I had my abortion was my former place of employment. Just one year prior, I worked as a medial social worker in their OB-GYN and Dialysis departments. The nurses and doctors I worked with liked me and expressed regret when I resigned.
The hospital where my abortion was performed.
I received an entirely difference reception during my abortion. The OB-GYN nurse who ushered me into an examining room to change into a hospital gown, glared at me: “You of all people! I can’t believe it.” My cultural cloak of shame was already weighing me down. She moved it up a notch.
When “the procedure” was complete, I changed back into my street clothes, and raced for the Exit door. Another nurse, known to me, called out, “Not so fast! There’s paper work for you to complete.” She sneered at me as she thrust a paper across her desk, “You have to sign this.”
The stamped heading at the top of the pager read, Fetal Death Certificate. Stunned, I cried out, “But I’m not a murderer. Do I really have to sign this?”
Nurse Ratched gave me a sadistical smile: ”Yes, or you can’t leave here.” I signed with shaking fingers and held back my shame and anger until I was safely in the parking lot when I wailed to the universe.
Texas women protesting their state’s new anti-abortion law
As unsettling as my abortion was, it was the right decision for me. I want every woman in America to have this choice. We have to work fast because Florida, Mississippi and Alabama, empowered by Texas, are drafting their own 6-week bans on abortion. This is not the time to wallow in despair. The best remedy for despair is resistance. We feel empowered when we resist.
The silver lining in the Texas law is that it offers an opportunity to build a comprehensive women’s movement that addresses abortion rights and economic justice for all women. Women across America desperately need government- funded childcare, a living wage, free medical care and anti-discriminatory laws.
Currently the political winds point to Trump running again in 2024, or a similar Fascist candidate, with working class appeal. A women-led movement that addresses abortion and issues affecting working class women could derail a right wing Presidential candidate.
The Women’s March that created the record-setting DC Women’s March in January 2017 is planning a nation-wide abortion rights march on October 2nd. March but don’t stop there. Follow Molly Ivins’ dictum, ”Raise Hell.” Work at the state and local levels to pressure elected officials to pass pro-abortion laws.
Record numbers of women participated in January’s 2017 DC Women’s March
We have to take-away the culturally generated shame and guilt many women experience when they abort. A woman’s body is her sacred possession. Her body belongs to her and not to the state. Let’s unite to guarantee this right.
Abortion rally, 1970’s
